big corporate supporters (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.) of Bush “won” no bid contracts to rebuild Iraq.

True. There’s always US taxpayer money if Iraqi oil revenues are disrupted.

Note, though, I believe a precedent may have been set for this in the Balkans, during the Clinton era. (Balkans plus Iraq)

Oh, and if that’s a disappointment, well:

Principal activity in Iran occurs through the operations of Halliburton Products & Services, Limited, a Cayman Islands company, headquartered in Dubai, U.A.E. (hereinafter HPSL). HPSL performs between $30 and $40 million annually in oilfield service work in Iran, consisting of cementing, completions work, downhole tools and well testing, stimulation services, PDC drilling bits, coring bits, fluids logging and the provision of drilling fluids.

I’m not kidding.

After we kicked their ass (but before they turned around and kicked ours right back), big corporate supporters (Halliburton, Bechtel, etc.) of Bush “won” no bid contracts to rebuild Iraq. Remember one of Bush’s original plans was to have the oil revenues pay for rebuilding Iraq. In this example the transfer of wealth is from the Iraqi government directly to those Bush supporters who got the no bid contracts. The Iraqi government gets its revenues from oil. Though I’d love to know what happened to those billions of hard dollars- cash- that Bremer gave to the Iraqi govt. which was promptly “misplaced”.

Then as we have seen with the Blackwater scandal, there are actually more private security guards than actual US govt. soldiers. These private security forces guard US government interests, including diplomats. These private security officers also earn far more money than our soldiers do. But it’s the US government who pays these security firms. And of course these security firms are Republican donors. I always thought that the government should provide security for its own interests and not hire mercenaries. We’re actually paying mercenaries more to guard our interests in Iraq than we are paying our own soldiers to fight the enemy.

Then of course Sam is right: the cost of oil worldwide, regardless of where it came from, has increased dramatically, which just puts money directly into the energy companies coffers. Who, we all know, are big Bush supporters.

Those are a couple examples from various industries that benefit from the huge transfer of money to keep this war going. And of course the US taxpayer is funding the US piece of it. It’s so nice to know that when I hear Exxon making those record profits that I helped them out… It makes me feel like I’ve done some good in this world. We may not be able to feed the poor in America, but we sure can make sure our Republican donors live the style they are entitled to. After all there are two types of Republicans, the haves and the have-mores. Waste not on the have-nots.

…I’m also not one to overlook coincidences.

It wasn’t merely coincidental, even. This war was about oil, specifically to remove Hussein as a threat to security of Middle East oil supplies, which is a vital US-Western interest in the region. This obviously is not “imperialism” [sic], nor a naked attempt to grab the oil. (We didn’t do it here and now; we didn’t do it in 1973 in retaliation for the oil embargo.) It’s about security and stability (which is why the US still aids the Saudi regime).

Incidentally, Iran is a threat to its neighbors’ oil supplies, and yes, attacks on neighbors’ oil facilities (pre-emptively to make Iran’s more valuable and necessary to preserve) is something it would likely do if we conducted air strikes on Iran. Iran has already issued threats in the past that anyone in the region hosting or helping attacks on it faces attacks on its oil facilities and other oil assets. (First and foremost on people’s minds is attacks on Saudi oil facilities.)

Now it looks as if the Iraqi gov’t is going to flat out offer special deals to our companies in exchange for protection from the chaos we’ve helped foster in Iraq. Companies that have more than a passing connection to many in the Bush administration and stand to reap large(er) profits from the entire situation. The picture forming just keeps getting sleazier and sleazier.

Corporate welfare, indeed.